Read Online A Dark Night's Work by Elizabeth Gaskell - Free Book Online Page A

he sent the letter to her father, telling
her of its contents, and begging her (in all those sweet words which
lovers know how to use) to urge her father to compliance for his
sake—his, her lover's—who was pining and lonely in all the crowds of
London, since her loved presence was not there. He did not care for
money, save as a means of hastening their marriage; indeed, if there were
only some income fixed, however small—some time for their marriage
fixed, however distant—he could be patient. He did not want superfluity
of wealth; his habits were simple, as she well knew; and money enough
would be theirs in time, both from her share of contingencies, and the
certainty of his finally possessing Bromley.
    Ellinor delayed replying to this letter until her father should have
spoken to her on the subject. But as she perceived that he avoided all
such conversation, the young girl's heart failed her. She began to blame
herself for wishing to leave him, to reproach herself for being accessory
to any step which made him shun being alone with her, and look distressed
and full of care as he did now. It was the usual struggle between father
and lover for the possession of love, instead of the natural and graceful
resignation of the parent to the prescribed course of things; and, as
usual, it was the poor girl who bore the suffering for no fault of her
own: although she blamed herself for being the cause of the disturbance
in the previous order of affairs. Ellinor had no one to speak to
confidentially but her father and her lover, and when they were at issue
she could talk openly to neither, so she brooded over Mr. Corbet's
unanswered letter, and her father's silence, and became pale and
dispirited. Once or twice she looked up suddenly, and caught her
father's eye gazing upon her with a certain wistful anxiety; but the
instant she saw this he pulled himself up, as it were, and would begin
talking gaily about the small topics of the day.
    At length Mr. Corbet grew impatient at not hearing either from Mr.
Wilkins or Ellinor, and wrote urgently to the former, making known to him
a new proposal suggested to him by his father, which was, that a certain
sum should be paid down by Mr. Wilkins to be applied, under the
management of trustees, to the improvement of the Bromley estate, out of
the profits of which, or other sources in the elder Mr. Corbet's hands, a
heavy rate of interest should be paid on this advance, which would secure
an income to the young couple immediately, and considerably increase the
value of the estate upon which Ellinor's settlement was to be made. The
terms offered for this laying down of ready money were so advantageous,
that Mr. Wilkins was strongly tempted to accede to them at once; as
Ellinor's pale cheek and want of appetite had only that very morning
smote upon his conscience, and this immediate transfer of ready money was
as a sacrifice, a soothing balm to his self-reproach, and laziness and
dislike to immediate unpleasantness of action had its counterbalancing
weakness in imprudence. Mr. Wilkins made some rough calculations on a
piece of paper—deeds, and all such tests of accuracy, being down at the
office; discovered that he could pay down the sum required; wrote a
letter agreeing to the proposal, and before he sealed it called Ellinor
into his study, and bade her read what he had been writing and tell him
what she thought of it. He watched the colour come rushing into her
white face, her lips quiver and tremble, and even before the letter was
ended she was in his arms kissing him, and thanking him with blushing
caresses rather than words.
    "There, there!" said he, smiling and sighing; "that will do. Why, I do
believe you took me for a hard-hearted father, just like a heroine's
father in a book. You've looked as woe-begone this week past as Ophelia.
One can't make up one's mind in a day about such sums of money as this,
little woman; and you should have let your old father have time to
consider."
    "Oh,